Harp Twins Interview - Camille and Kennerly

What is something we may not know about you both?
We love old cemeteries! Whenever we’re on a trip somewhere, we try to find a cool old cemetery to explore. They’re so peaceful and full of interesting history.

I hear that both of your are Third Degree Black Belts in Tae Kwon Do. Could you tell us how you got into this?
We always thought it would be cool to do martial arts and when the opportunity came up to try a free class, we immediately took it! It was a good life lesson for us because previous to that we had been competitive swimmers and were very good. We weren’t used to not being the best at something, so it was an excellent humbling life experience for us to start from the beginning and have to work our way up in the ranks.

Could you tell us about one of your most exciting performances?
We just returned from a tour in Paraguay and it was definitely one of the most amazing experiences of our lives. We represented the United States at the World Harp Festival there and the embassy also asked us to stay and tour schools and towns in Paraguay for additional performances and to speak on empowerment for girls and women.

We had a full Harp Twins live show open to the public the day after the World Harp Festival ended and 900 people showed up to a 350 seat theater! So, we asked the embassy and venue if we could add a second full show right after the first. It was so much fun to play back-to-back shows for our amazing fans in Paraguay! We stayed after the concerts were over for several hours taking photos and signing autographs. We had the BEST time in Paraguay.

How long might it take to compose your own original pieces?
It’s difficult for us to place a time value on our compositions because we are always working on so many other things at the same time. We’re currently planning an original EP, which we hope to record and release next year. We have a lot of fun plans and just need the time to start working on the details!

Could you tell us about some of your upcoming projects?
We’re currently working on our next two cover albums! We hope to release Harp Attack 2 late this year, and Harp Fantasy 2 early next year. Our Harp Fantasy 2 will include some fun gaming music – which we are excited to share! We also have a new music video almost completed that we are very excited about. It’s quite different from our past music videos and we think our fans will be pleasantly surprised!

You both have many fan favorite songs. Which are some of your top personal favorites?
Our favorite of our arrangements are probably “Fear of the Dark” (Iron Maiden) and our Lord of the Rings Medley. Those are so much fun for us.

“Fear of the Dark” (Iron Maiden)

Lord of the Rings Medley

How do you keep up with such a large fan base?
We honestly don’t know! haha We always make it a priority to post and write to our fans on social media daily. Even if it means that we’re sacrificing sleep, we want our fans to know how important they are to us.

What TV shows have you both been watching recently?
Our current favorites are The Walking Dead and Vikings. We’re absolutely obsessed with those shows. However, we’re also excited to start watching the new season of American Horror Story. We loved the previous seasons!

What are your favorite video games (at a young age as well as recently)?
When we were kids we would play whatever our friends were playing because we didn’t have the money for our own gaming systems – Our friends played a lot of Mario. :D :D Unfortunately our current travel schedule doesn’t allow us to play video games very often, but we love covering the music! We also love planning and creating the costumes for our gaming music videos – our favorites are our Rikku costume from Final Fantasy X-2 and our costume for our Skyrim/Morrowind Medley. We made both of these costumes ourselves!

Final Fantasy X-2

Skyrim/Morrowind Medley

What advice would you give for aspiring musicians?
Follow your dreams – even if (and especially if) it’s outside the box. We think it is most important to be yourself and no one else. Find your own unique niche that is 100% *you*. Work hard. Then work harder. Never stop. Put in the practice hours because there are no real shortcuts. Find a teacher who not only teaches skills, but who also allows you to love and fully explore your instrument. Our first harp teacher was a very negative person and condescending teacher. We knew that we wanted to play duets when we started harp and she didn’t want us to play duets. We felt like the better we got and the harder we worked the more irritated and negative she became. We actually considered quitting harp because we were losing our love for it. However, our mom looked around and found us another teacher who was amazing: she not only let us incorporate duets into our curriculum, but encouraged us to do what we love and follow our musical passions and dreams. She was the polar opposite of our first teacher and really allowed us to become the musicians that we are today. We think it’s extremely important to keep the love for your instrument first and foremost. When we get discouraged we always turn back to why we are doing what we’re doing – we LOVE the harp and we LOVE playing together.

I hear that you both have a heart for philanthropy. What is your favorite charity and why?
We have always been actively involved with charitable organizations and we love “giving back”. So, we’ll give our favorite 3!

1. Little Angels – A loving home of children and young adults with severe medical needs and who require around the clock care. Our cousin, Justin, spent the last few years of his life there and since then, Little Angels has had a special place in our hearts. We have played for and visited with the residents there as well as performed for annual events benefitting Little Angels.

2. Rising Stars Buddy Baseball – For many years we volunteered as “buddies” for a program called “Rising Stars Buddy Baseball” that pairs one child/young adult with a child/young adult who has special needs to play baseball for 5 weeks in the summer. We have made some lifelong friendships with the challenged athletes we were paired with in buddy baseball and still get together with these friends regularly when we are “home”.

3. Compassion International – The program allows sponsors to support a child one-on-one – providing food, clothing, medical care, and the opportunity to go to school. The sponsor and child write to each other through the program, send pictures, and develop a special relationship. When we were 8 years old, we heard about this organization though a favorite musical artist and started to “support” 2 girls our age in Ethiopia (first with the help of our mom, and gradually taking over more of the financial sponsorship as we got a little older) until they graduated from high school. One of the girls is now married with a baby girl of her own and the other is now attending University in her country. We know that we can’t change the world, but we’re so happy to have changed their worlds.

Since our first Compassion kids graduated from the program, we have started sponsoring the brother of one of girls (both of their parents died of AIDS during the time we were sponsored her) and also several more girls in Ethiopia.

Is there anything else you'd like to say?
Huge THANK YOU to the gaming community for your support of our music!
We’re so honored. We have some upcoming gaming covers coming, that we think you will love. We also always love hearing requests!

Thanks so much for taking the time to speak with us!
Thanks for the fun interview!